On Aug. 9, 1988, Wayne Douglas Gretzky was sold to the Los Angeles Kings for $18 million, a handful of players and the hearts and minds of a nation. Twenty-five years later, legendary Edmonton Sun hockey scribe Terry Jones re-visits the day the NHL, and Canadian hockey, changed forever. Below is the sixth of a six-part series that can be read in full in Friday’s Edmonton Sun – or online across Sun Media sites Aug. 9. Check out the live chat Jones hosted Thursday afternoon.

Part 6: Happily ever after?

All in the family

In the end, give or take some speed bumps in Phoenix, the disappointment in 2006 as GM of Canada after the Olympic gold medal triumph under his leadership at Salt Lake 2002 and the odd challenge here and there, it’s all turned out pretty much to be a “lived happily ever after” story for The Great One.

Gretzky may or may not be happier if he happened to be still involved in the game, but talk to him as he spends the summer with his family at their Idaho retreat and he seems quite happy and content with the life he’s living.

While many former greats of the game have to deal with the ‘Didn’t You Used To Be’ syndrome at his age, Gretzky is in his glory when he occasionally finds it.

“I took my son Tristan and my son Ty home for Father’s Day two months ago to surprise my dad, and they wanted to see the Hockey Hall of Fame,” he started telling the stories.

“I’m pretty good at that. I can put a hat on and kinda cruise around pretty easily. People don’t expect to see Wayne Gretzky walking around the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“So we just bought a couple of tickets and went in …” he said, when your agent interrupted.

“Bought the tickets?”

“Yeah, we bought the tickets,” he said, and continued.

“Nobody knew we were there and we went in for a couple of hours and played all the games and did everything, and I showed them all the different players I’d played with.

“I was explaining to them that when I was a kid I used to go in for hours and hours. I used to just go down to the Hockey Hall of Fame and walk around and just stare at all the uniforms and the sticks and pucks and skates.

“So we had a good time walking around there without anybody knowing we were there until right at the end, somebody kind of spotted me.

“My son Tristan was in a hockey camp here in Idaho the other day and a couple of kids from Alberta were in the camp. I went on the ice with the kids at the camp and one of them said to me, ‘I heard Wayne Gretzky is coming. Is that true?’

“It was kind of cute.

“Tristan, who has never skated, wanted to jump into a hockey camp that they put together here with Russ Courtnall and his son. That’s why we were there.

“I don’t know if they didn’t recognize me or that I was such a bad skater they couldn’t believe it was me.”

Gretzky says he delights in the occasional experience of anonymity.

“At Tristan’s school, even though some of them know I played hockey, they just know me as Tristan’s father.

“It is cute when I go to a school or a baseball game and the Kings and the Ducks are in the playoffs and the kids are sort of following it, and every once in a while kids will bring hockey cards and get me to sign. But mostly I’m just the normal everyday father at school, like everyone else.”

And he says it is kind of strange when it comes to his family.

Tristan is 13 and Emma is 10.

“It’s funny. I kinda have two sets of kids. The first three had a chance to follow me and watch me play a little bit, although they don’t remember very much. And the next two never saw me play.

“Tristan and Janet and I went to a game this year and we sat down by the ice. The kids like to sit down by the ice, so we sit down by the ice with them. And my son said to Janet after the first intermission, ‘Did dad really play in this league?’

“I thought that was comical because the players are so big now and strong and fast and when you are sitting down at the first or second row … those guys are physical specimens now. It’s just changed so much.”

“Tristan turned 13 on Aug. 2, the same day my mother-in-law turns 93. She’s been a mainstay with us. She’s a widow and she’s basically been living with us for 25 years and comes with us to be here in Idaho every summer. When I put my dad and her together it’s like they’re both 40 years old. They don’t stop talking and they don’t stop walking.”

Ty, he said, was the only one who had much interest in hockey, going so far as to play for the famed Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Minnesota.

“Tristan plays baseball, mostly, and lacrosse. When we paid that surprise visit to my dad for Father’s Day I told Tristan that I grew up playing lacrosse and he didn’t know that. I was explaining to him the different sticks. So my brother took him out to the reserve at Six Nations there to the guys who used to make my old wooden sticks. They used to hand-make ’em for me. And they made my son a hand-made lacrosse stick so he thought that was the coolest thing he’s ever seen.”

Gretzky didn’t tell his kids much about his exploits in any sport.

“My kids didn’t know that I ever played baseball,” he said.

His kids had no idea that Gretzky, as much as he loved hockey as a kid, loved baseball even more at one point. He played at the top levels, including Ontario’s junior Inter-county League with his hometown Brantford Red Sox.

Gretzky’s love for baseball has come into play again following son Trevor, 20, who was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2011 and now is playing his entry level year in A ball with the Boise Hawks of the Northwest League.

“It’s just a big thrill for me,” he said.

“One of the greatest things we did with the Oilers, and this was before Phoenix was in the league, was make sure we got a five-day break in Phoenix around March. No hockey. No nothing. Just to get rejuvenated.

“We used to go to spring training games. And I just used to love it. I used to go all day long just to watch guys practise and play.

“So now to see Trevor out there … I get to go see him at spring training in Mesa, Ariz., now, it’s wonderful.

“Ty goes to Arizona State and he’s got one more year left, so they basically live together in Phoenix. Trevor’s mostly there training and playing instructional league ball from September to the end of March.

“I was up to watch Trevor play in Vancouver. He plays for the Chicago Cubs’ A team in the Northwest League out of Boise, Idaho, which is handy from here, too.”

Gretzky’s oldest, of course, is Paulina, 24, the girl most Edmonton fans remember for the exceptional job she did singing the national anthem for the Heritage Classic.

Paulina, of course, has found some fame as a much-photographed two-time Flare magazine cover girl, often wearing the smallest of bikinis and photographed with the famous and near-famous making the L.A. nightclub scene.

“A lot of people ask me ‘What does Wayne think?’ ” is how your correspondent phrased the question in bringing up his oldest.

“What Wayne thinks, Terry, is that it’s a different world we live in. That’s what I think. How we were raised and how kids are today with social media and … it’s completely different.

“At the end of the day, we know her. She’s a wonderful girl. She’s got a great heart. She’s 25 years old now, almost, and she makes her decisions.

“She’s dating a wonderful young man now, Dustin Johnson, so now we’re up at 2 a.m. watching him play in the British Open. She decided to visit us the week of our anniversary and then go up to meet him at the Canadian Open.

“He’s a great young man and I get some good golf lessons out of it,” he laughed.

You get the idea. Wayne Gretzky is pretty much good with the way his life has worked out.

Twenty-five years ago it would have been difficult to comprehend that by the time the quarter-century anniversary of the darkest day in Edmonton sports history came around, we’d get to the day and be able to feel, if not exactly great about it, at least sort of OK in some ways about it.

Time can do that.

After scoring 43 goals and adding 61 assists for 110-points in his 72 WHA games as an Oiler, following three goals (one against the Oilers) and three assists in eight games in Indianapolis, Gretzky scored 583 goals, and registered 1,086 assists for a staggering 1,669 points in nine seasons and 696 games as an Oiler.

Gretzky was already a twice-over Hockey Hall of Famer before he went on to play the final 11 years of his career, adding another 791 games, 311 goals, 877 assists and 1,188 points.

Gretzky added 81 goals and 171 assists for 252 points in 120 playoff games, and won four Stanley Cups here. He played another 88 playoff games, scoring 34 goals, adding 89 assists for 123 more points in Los Angeles, St. Louis and New York after he departed.

After his year here in the WHA, Gretzky set 43 NHL records in Edmonton, won the Hart trophy eight of his nine NHL seasons here, seven Art Ross trophies and two Conn Smythe trophies.

A year after he left there’d be a statue outside the rink where he played — a reminder to Edmontonians every time they attended an Oilers game — that they’d watched the greatest player in the history of hockey when he was at his absolute best.

Says who? Says Wayne Gretzky.

Twenty-five years is a long time. It adds perspective.

“It’s like my dad says: ‘Everything always happens for a reason and everything in your life seemed to happen for a reason.’

“Maybe the reason I got traded or sold from Edmonton was that, although it was only 10 years, Edmonton got to see my 10 best years. My very best years. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why it happened.”

Retired Edmonton Oilers superstar Wayne Gretzky (back left) and Oilers play-by-play announcer Rod Phillips share words as his famous #99 jersey is raised into the rafters at his retirement celebration put on by the Edmonton Oilers hockey club before the start of the NHL's 1999-2000 season in Edmonton on October 1, 1999 at the Skyreach Centre in Edmonton, Alta. In front watching left to right, Janet Jones wipes a tear (wife), Phyllis Gretzky (mom), kids, Paulina, Trevor and Ty Gretzky. Also in attendance watching in the background Glen Sather, Dave Semenko, Mark Messier and Juri Kurri. Gretzky, begin his 20 year NHL career in Edmonton and played 10 of his 20-year hockey career for the Oilers. Gretzky won four Stanley Cups with the Oilers, 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988. Edmonton Sun/QMI Agency